Dominion Rising
by ShatteringTheStars
Summary: Sable Haines has been uprooted from her life in America and relocated to England. Now a student at Hogwarts School for Witchcraft and Wizardry, she has every eye on her and a million secrets to hide from the prying students who can't keep their questions to themselves. America isn't safe any longer thanks to Sable Haines, will England fall to the same darkness? Or find a new savior
1. Chapter 1: Tilting Axis

**Chapter One: Tilting Axis**

Hogwarts Castle stood resolute; a structure undefeatable even when an army of darkness marched upon it wands drawn and intent malignant. Lights burned bright behind the old windows and the melodious cries of laughter filtered out into the night air from where its front doors stood open. Quiet sentries they granted Sable Haines entry into their sacred castle, requiring fealty to all that was kept safe inside. A new year, a new student unlike all the rest. Taking the stone steps, cool under bare feet, one at a time, as slowly as she could, Sable let the hum of magical energy seep into her bones. It was a balm to her frayed nerves, which hadn't begun to heal since the – incident – despite her assurances to her Aunt Eleanor.

"Keep me safe." She whispered to the doors as they swung shut at her back, locking her inside her new home. "Keep me whole."

No one wandered the halls, their emptiness causing the slap of her feet to reverberate over the sounds of the other students. Even with the Great Halls door closed, Sable could hear her fellow classmates celebrating the start of a new term and feel the excited energy that let off like a pungent musk. Her senses had always been heightened; a result of her family having lycanthropic ancestors. Though she'd never change, certain aspects of her personality and physiology had been – affected – by her contaminated bloodline. Full moons were particularly tough, but Sable wasn't about to share that with even the walls and statues that surrounded her with a crushing, suffocating, force.

Lithe fingers pressed against the vibrating wood of the Great Hall doors and with some effort, Sable made the entrance of her lifetime. She highly doubted Hogwarts had ever had an American transfer; let alone one who came at the start of their fifth year with a backstory as grim as her own. Maybe nothing had been said of her background or her arrival. Maybe she could sneak in without being noticed by the hundreds of eyes waiting behind the doors. Sucking in a deep breathe, Sable didn't release it until she'd shoved the doors open and the light in the room seemed to train on her like an over-done spotlight. Every eye turned. Sable's breathing hitched and then came in quick draws that never seemed to fill her lungs enough. Curling her hands into fists, she used the painful cut of her fingernails slicing through skin to distract her mind from the panic attack drowning her body in overwhelming sensations.

Round faces, square faces, every race and age – it didn't matter who sat before her so long as they stopped staring, some out of pity – the ones who knew – and some out of confusion. The tables they occupied stretched across the entire room ending just before a great platform where robed men and women sat supervising the night's celebration. At the center most seat of the staff table sat an older man, not yet growing into his elder years, but not young enough to be disqualified from holding the position of Headmaster. Dimitri Whitmore, sixteenth Headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. He was handsome, ageless almost despite the streaks of grey in his black hair, and something in the twinkle of his green eyes stirred a distant memory in Sables mind. One she couldn't quite grasp as he stood and opened his arms, a bright smile creasing his face and exposing laugh lines made out of years of happiness.

"Teachers, students, please welcome our newest student." His voice boomed over the crowd, the only sound in the entire hall as everyone continued to stare. "Sable Haines is joining us from our American sister school the Salem Witches Institute. Miss Haines, please come in."

Sable's cheeks were red hot and burned her fingers when they touched the skin to make sure she truly wasn't on fire. Keeping her chin up and her shoulders squared, Sable took her first steps into the Great Hall and didn't stop until she reached the teachers platform. Her back was on fire from all the stares, but Sable didn't give them the satisfaction seeing her nerves which screamed at her to glance back – see who was judging her.

"Miss Haines, could you please step up onto the platform for your sorting?" Headmaster Whitmore beckoned her forward with a soft wave of his hand. "Sable?"

Heart pounding a furious beat in her chest, Sable stepped up once, twice, and stood before the Headmaster. A flick of his wand and the sorting hat, much like Salem's orb which told each student their place, appeared before her on a short stool. Headmaster Whitmore came around the great table and lifted the hat from its place, allowing Sable to sit with a nervous exhale of breathe. She wasn't sure her legs would hold her up much longer if he hadn't produced the stool.

"Miss Haines will be joining us for the remainder of her schooling, I expect – no matter her sorting – that you will all treat her with respect and the kindness she deserves during these troubling times in America." Glancing up at him, Sable received a knowing smile and a quick wink. As if he were assuring her everything would be fine. "Let the sorting continue."

Closing her eyes, Sable didn't shy away as the pressure of the hat being placed on her head weighed down on her neck and shoulders. At first nothing happened. Sable wasn't sure where she'd be sorted. Back at the Salem Institute she'd spent her years in the Strenuo dorm, which was the equivalent of Gryffindor here at Hogwarts. Lauded for its courageous witches and wizards who knew no fear and found professions that played to their love of danger and adrenaline. Back then she'd been that kind of girl. The one who jumped into the fray without a seconds thought, uncaring if her life ended or her body came out a little more broken then it already had been.

She hadn't been that girl for nearly four months. Since the events of the previous year, Sable had been a shadow of that girl rebuilding herself from the ashes into someone who didn't resemble the honorable characteristics of her previous house. Her world had tilted off its axis and nothing from Heaven or Hell seemed enough to pull it back into place.

"Your mind is dark, young one." The Sorting Hat spoke inside her mind, a terrible invasion that made her knees clack together. "And such fear, such terrible suffocating fear, but I see behind such walls to a heart ready to fight and to run."

"Please, get on with it." She begged the Hat, her plea soft enough for only it to hear. "I'm nothing more than the darkness, I can assure you of that."

"Interesting, very interesting. Why do you think this Sable Haines?"

"Because it is all I feel inside." She answered honestly, sensing the Hat would never betray her words to another.

A chuckle from the inhuman object. "Darkness can be destroyed with a single touch of light, my dear. A spark if you will; such a tiny inconsequential thing at first. While you may not see the truth behind the shadows, I do." And with that final proclamation, the Hat sorted her. "Gryffindor!"

Cheering erupted in the hall, loud enough to drown out her cries to the Hat pleading with it to tell her what it saw. Tell her anything to prove that she was not as lost as she felt, but in the passing of a second it was gone, removed from her head, and she was left staring at the mob of students cheering her on to her new home. "Gryffindor; a brave new world." She whispered; a flicker of hope sparking to life inside of her. A light to fight the darkness.


	2. Chapter 2: A Family Affair

**Chapter Two: A Family Affair**

"Why aren't you wearing any shoes?" The question was directed at Sable, as she walked to her new table, by a tall gangly boy with patch worked red and brown hair.

Sable blinked at the boy once, twice, three times before answering, "I run faster barefoot." It came out dry and completely serious.

Her new housemates stared for a second longer before breaking out in raucous laughter that didn't improve her mood. Sable had to wonder if she'd ever fit in with these boisterous wizards who all resembled each other and laughed with each other as a family would, but she didn't have to think for long as the boy with his mismatched hair and muddy brown eyes scooted over for her to sit.

"You're funny, Haines, a hoot." The boy clapped her on the back, knocking the wind from her lungs. "I'm Fred Weasley, welcome to Gryffindor."

"It's Sable, thanks." A rushing filled her ears as the Great Hall erupted with chattering voices as every student went back to their dinner.

A second, scraggily black haired, head popped up next to her, an arm hooking around her waist to pull her around in her seat. "Ignore Gryffindors' fool." A lopsided grin crossed the boy's face and a twinkle lit his ashen brown eyes. "I'm James Potter."

"Sable please forgive my brother and dimwitted cousin. I'm Lily Potter and it's a pleasure to have you in Gryffindor." Lily's smile was sweet, her eyes the same as her brothers, and her hair a vibrant red.

It took another five minutes to introduce the rest of the Weasley clan, who she'd unsuspectingly sat with, and the quick saluting of the third Potter who sat at the Slytherin table. Lily was a fourth year, James and Fred both seventh years, and then there was Roxanne, the only sixth year in the family, and then Rose and Albus who were in their fifth year like Sable. Though she knew what it was like to have a sibling, Sable had never seen such a large family before who got along so well.

At the thought of her brother, Sable curled in on herself ever so slightly, wrapping her arms around her stomach and dropping her head so that the long locks of inky black hair, which were her signature, concealed her face. Eyes scrunched shut, she took deep shuttering breathes that did little for her fragile psyche. _Get yourself together, Sable, pull the pieces off the floor and don't let them see your cracks._ A tear dipped down her cheek and into the neckline of her robes.

Sable looked up just as her small group looked at her expectantly. "Yes?"

"We wanted to know what the Salem Institute is like." Rose said, eyes lighting up as she leaned a little closer like Sable was about to share some big secret.

James and Fred, who'd squished her between their bodies, grinned like fiends and put their arms on her shoulders weighing her down. "Come on, Sable, you can tell us. It's not as good as Hogwarts, right? I mean really you can't compete with our castle!"

"Actually Salem's campus is made from similar stone bricks and has six multi-storied mansions giving it a similar, although more expansive, layout as Hogwarts."

Rose, Lily, and Roxanne burst out laughing at her words and ragged on the two boys for nearly ten minutes. Sable smiled softly at their ribbing, enjoying the light hearted banter that no one back home had been able to give her since the incident. They'd probably never realize how insanely cathartic it felt to have everyone laugh with or at you, when the people you called family could barely look at you. _No one knows me…I'm free…to be anyone. They don't know the terrible awful, can't judge me._ Sable felt her entire body relax all at once, sagging a little and then lifting back up as if she were light as a cloud. The weight of her secrets was gone, because to these people she had no secrets – just an infinite number of possible characteristics and background stories that she could divulge at her own luxury.

"Salem had this amazing campus, but we aren't just known for our looks." Sable grinned and ran a hand through her hair, causing it to fall all over the place and into her green eyes. "Many great witches and wizards have come out of Salem. When we're not being burned at the stake of course."

Everyone laughed and another ounce of tension leeched from her body. Rose Weasley, five feet of red hair, blue eyes, and, from her current contribution to the conversation, all attitude, leaned forward and rested her head on her fist. "So, it's not an all-girls school?"

"God no." Sable chuckled and shook her head. "We're pretty evenly split – I think we even had a transgender girl at one point, but she either graduated or disappeared after my first year. One of my best friends back home is a guy."

"Do you miss him?" Roxanne, who was seated next to Rose, asked.

Sable chewed on her bottom lip. "Yeah, every second I'm gone."

"Then why did you leave?" Fred asked, flinching when Roxanne, his sister, smacked him across the back of his head. "What?"

"Be nice, she may not want to talk about it you nosy prat." Roxanne rolled her eyes. "They mean well, their brain just isn't much bigger than a walnut so they can't help themselves."

"They?" Sable asked.

"Fred and James, they share one walnut sized brain." She giggled. "So we just refer to them as a unit instead of individuals."

Fred and James did not look pleased, their arms crossed and cute little frowns on their face. Squawking at each other, as siblings do, Roxanne and Fred fell into their own conversation while the others continued to chat her up about what America was like. Though Sable answered all their questions, which were harmless and stuck meticulously away from the reason for her transfer, she was far more interested in examining them. Fred and Roxanne looked nothing alike. While Fred had an olive complexion and reddish brown hair, Roxanne had the most beautiful espresso colored skin and dark black hair much like Sables. The only commonality between the two were their brown eyes. If it weren't for their eyes Sable never would have pegged them as siblings.

"Are there more of you?" Sable asked when Lily mentioned meeting up with a boy named Hugo later.

They all shared a smile before James answered. "Rose's little brother is Hugo, he's in Ravenclaw, fourth year, and then there are Molly and Lucy our cousins. Molly is in Gryffindor, she's around here somewhere – maybe with her Hufflepuff boyfriend who knows – and then there is Lucy her younger sister who's in Ravenclaw with Hugo. Luce is in your year, you'll probably meet her in class tomorrow. We've also got Victoire, Dominique, and Louis. Viv graduated a few years ago, but Dom is a sixth year Hufflepuff and Louis is a fifth year Ravenclaw. You'll meet them at some point."

"How can you stand it? So many of you – how do you ever get time to yourself?" Sable gawked, unable to hide her surprise at just how many there were of them.

Fred laughed. "What's alone? I'm not sure I understand the concept."

"We like having no time to ourselves and a large family." Rose shrugged.

"Yeah, we rule the school." James elbowed her softly. "No one messes with us."

Sable wished she could believe that, but there were always bullies. Always people willing to hurt others to get ahead in life. "I had a brother. I thought the same thing you all do…but I was wrong."


	3. Chapter 3: Suffication

**Chapter Three: Suffocation**

The feast ended twenty minutes later with Headmaster Whitmore wishing them a quiet evening and a happy first day of class. Filing out with the other students, Sable was jostled between the different Weasley siblings as they ran up the steps towards Gryffindor Tower. Lucy, Hugo and Louis said hello quickly as they passed by, but for the most part Sable didn't meet any of the other family members on her way up to bed. Rose had latched onto her arm the moment they'd left, a steady guide through a tumultuous sea. Sable was thankful for her presence as everyone shouted to each other and created a chaotic beast slithering their way up and up into the castle.

"Do you mind me asking what happened in America?" Rose asked, her voice quiet and close to Sables ear so no one else heard.

Back stiffening, Sable played with the sleeve of her robes which were heavy and uncomfortable. They didn't have uniforms at Salem; something she'd taken advantage of all these years. "We were attacked. Something is coming, whispers call it the Dominion, but no one knows much. It's just safer to be here."

"So your family sent you here to keep you safe." Rose said and Sable didn't argue with her, just giving a slight nod. "That's so sweet of them. Well, we're of course happy to have another Gryffindor. Did you have houses at the Institute?"

"Yeah, we did. Strenuo, Boria, Ingegno, and Lealta." The names were a mouthful. "I was in Strenuo, where the brave and daring dwelt."

"Then you'll do just fine in Gryffindor. We're all mad with a dash of courage." Rose laughed, her interest in Sable's private life thankfully over.

Reaching Gryffindor Tower, Sable stared at the picture of the Fat Lady with a little apprehension. At Salem they'd used small gargoyles hung on their front doors to keep the other houses out of their dorm. Strenuo had the head of a hawk. Gryffindor had an opera singer with an ego. Rose informed Sable that Lina Wood and Noble Jones were their head girl and boy, which explained why they'd led them from the Great Hall and why they were instructing everyone on the proper password for the dormitory. _Mandrake._ Committing the word to memory, Sable filed into the Gryffindor Common Room where everyone began to sit and chat with their friends.

"Do you want to hang out for a bit? I doubt anyone will actually head to bed just yet." Rose asked as she took two steps towards her siblings, a hand beckoning for Sable to follow.

"Yeah, come on Haines don't leave us." James called. "We haven't even begun to get interesting."

"I've got the next three years of my life to spend with you goofs, I'm sure missing out on tonight won't be a great loss."

Waving goodnight, Sable took the steps two at a time, her legs powerful from years of running through Salem when she needed time to think, and found her way into the girl's dormitory. As Rose had said it was empty, the fifth year wing evenly spaced with beds, and all their trunks set neatly by their area. Finding her bed, farthest from the staircase, Sable sat down on the red sheets and stared at the rest of the room barely seeing it. The silent pressure bore down on her until Sable jumped up from her bed and ran for the bathroom just off of the dormitory. Cleaning up, she removed the heavy makeup she always wore and brushed her teeth. When she looked in the mirror all she could see was a ghost of the girl she'd been. Cheeks hollowed out from weeks of not eating, skin still a little too pale to be healthy, and deep set green eyes with heavy bags underneath. Somewhere behind the malnutrition and haunted gaze was the girl who mirrored her mother in every way except her smile.

"Breath, Sable, breath." She chanted, a mantra that her Aunt had said might help, but had yet to have any effect.

Clutching the sink in front of her, knuckles going white from her death grip, Sable sucked in breathe after breathe only succeeding in making herself lightheaded. The room began to spin and Sable had to stumble back to her bed to keep herself from fainting on the bathroom floor. She collapsed onto her bed with a tiny cry, her mind winking out of existence as it had so many times since that night.

_Heat licked over her skin, a demanding caress as she pounded against the door that could give her freedom. She'd been the last out of the dorm, but before she'd reached the door it had snapped shut locking her inside. A fiery vault it tried relentlessly to devour her, until all Sable could do was destroy her hands against the door and wear out her voice. She'd tried every spell to break her way out, but nothing worked. The fire was getting closer, the smoke thicker, and no help from the outside came despite her pleas for help._

_ "Sable!" It was the first voice she'd hear in ages. "Sable, honey, where are you?"_

_ Sighing in relief, she stopped her pounding and shouted through the door. "Mom! I'm here, I'm here."_

_ "Sable!" This time her mother's cry wasn't a relief, the pain in it magnifying until her name turned into a shrill scream._

_ Pounding on the door once more, Sable finally wedge it open, not sure if she'd done so by her own strength or by someone else's design, and escaped out into the night air. Smoke was billowing from every window raining ashes down upon them. Everything inside would be lost, though the structure would remain to stand. Uncaring of whether or not the building would come down, Sable rushed to her feet and searched for her mother. It had not been a trick of her imagination, her mother had been here just a second ago. Her entire family was here, even Marco, her brother, had come to celebrate the end of her fourth year at Salem. It was tradition that every family come for the closing ceremony; while her parents had come every year before and she'd gone to every one of Marco's – he'd never come to any of her closing ceremonies before._

_ "Mom!" Sable's voice was so ragged and worn from the smoke it didn't reach very far. "Dad! Marco!"_

_ "Sable." Her father came sprinting across the grounds, through the hazy smoke that had settled over the grass from all the burning buildings, and yanked her into his arms. "Come on, honey, we have to get out of here."_

_ "Where are Mom and Marco? I heard mom calling for me." Tears streamed down her cheeks as she swung her head back and forth searching the grounds through the smoke and bodies. People were running around everywhere she looked._

_ "I don't know, but we're going to find…" Her father's words cut off, his eyes going matte as his entire body stiffened and then collapsed to the ground._

_ Falling with him, Sable landed on her knees ripping the skin off of them and started pushing at her father to wake him up. "Dad! Dad, wake up! Please!"_

Sable woke with a jolt and shot up in bed. She couldn't tell how long she'd been out, but from the looks of the dormitory – not long. No one was in bed and the sounds of student laughter could still be hear drifting up from the common room. Wiping the sweat from her forehead, Sable stood on wobbly legs and rushed out of the dormitory back down to where everyone sat having a good time. James spotted her first, a grin breaking out on his deviously handsome face. Sable didn't smile back, just rushed to his side and took the seat he'd offered. The others were so consumed in their debate about the best Quidditch team that they didn't notice her panicked entrance.

"Hey, everything okay?" James sat next to her on the small couch, his feet up on the coffee table in front of him and his arms outstretched over the back.

Sable shook her head. "I'm fine."

"Despite what everyone might say, you can talk to me – or Fred – but I'd prefer it if you talked to me," he said, a sly grin kicking up the right side of his mouth. "Seriously though…what's the matter?"

"Nothing, guess I don't really feel like being alone after all." Sable sighed and tried to shrug off the fear eating away at her insides like a virus that would never go away.

James stared for another minute before he turned his attention back to the current conversation. Curling up on the couch, Sable listened half-heartedly to their debate about the Chudley Canons and the Holly Head Harpies, who James mother had apparently played for at one point in her career, only imputing her opinion when there was a lull in the conversation. The teams in America were amazing, but rarely made it to the Quidditch World cup for various reasons such as 'they were cursed' or their seeker was 'mysteriously poisoned' resulting in their need to forfeit the game.

"You cannot seriously be a supporter of the Fitchburg Finches, Sable, please tell me you aren't a fan or we can never date." James groaned when she threw her favorite team into the pot.

"They've won the world cup seven times, James, and who said we were ever going to date?" Sable's head picked up off the pillow she'd curled up against and looked down the couch at him where he was playing with her lime green toes.

"Yeah, but they're American."

"I'm an American – from Massachusetts their home state." Sable laughed when he pinched the bottom of her big toe.

"Well you're in England now, the land of 'shut up and support the Chudley Cannons.'"

They all burst out laughing at that comment, even Sable let out a chuckle – something she'd never thought she'd do again – and then let the conversation flow away from her and her, apparently, awful Quidditch choices. Slowly, one by one, each of them wandered off up to their beds. Sable waved goodnight to James, who'd stayed the longest, and watched him ascend the stairs up to the boy's dorm. She wouldn't be going back up to the girls dormitory; not when the nightmares that took over her every sleeping moment caused her to wake screaming until her voice was hoarse and her throat raw. Instead she curled up by the fire and opened one the many books that lay around the room. It was a Quidditch book; she should have known with the way everyone talked about the game it was no wonder the books would reflect similar topics.

"Sable." Rose's voice barely poked through the foggy valley of her dreams. "Sable, hey, Sable wake up! Did you sleep down here the entire night?"


End file.
